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02-04-2008, 08:12 PM
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Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 66
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Fixing a dent/crack in wing leading edge :-(
Today, while riveting one of the wing leading edges, I managed to drop my nice heavy bucking bar inside. The result was a ding/crack in the skin!
The picture shows the crack, but doesn't really show the ding very well.
I have already sent a message to Vans, but I would appreciate any suggestions on how to address this.
The crack is just the right size so I can drill it out with a #30 drill. So, I think I can try to first flatten the ding with a thick spoon, and then drill the crack out. Then dimple and plug the hole with a blind rivet. Why not a solid rivet? Because the ding is right on the tip of the leading edge, with no rib to back it up. I am afraid of making things worse if I hit it with the rivet gun and slip just a little....I'm thinking some light sanding and filler prior to final paint should make the blind rivet dissapear? -- thoughts?
Thanks!
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Luis Orozco
Austin, TX
RV-7A Slowbuild Wings!
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02-04-2008, 08:44 PM
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Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Battleground
Posts: 4,348
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Not that big of a deal
There are many acceptable ways to fix. Your flush blind rivet idea might work, but I would be concerned about not having enough surface area for the filler to hold on. I would just leave the blind rivet alone if I went that approach. Call it a trophy or witness to your build.
The metal has stretched, and you can not unstretch it, so I doubt you will be able to coax it back into shape with a spoon. Perhaps, and you cant hurt anything trying that.
Judging from the size, it is quite a small dent? If so, you can file off the protrusion flat. This will leave a bit of a hole where the crack is. You could then carefully dent that hole in to allow for the filler to bite well. I like your idea of drilling it to stop the crack, but you will need to dent it in enough to allow enough surface area for the filler to take hold. You can't just fill a hole.
Regardless, get lots of ideas from your post and I am sure someone will come up with a solution that works for you. You will never know it was there.
__________________
Smart People do Stupid things all the time. I know, I've seen me do'em.
RV6 - Builder/Flying
Bucker Jungmann
Fiat G.46 -(restoration in progress, if I have enough life left in me)
RV1 - Proud Pilot.
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02-04-2008, 08:46 PM
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Join Date: Jan 2005
Posts: 804
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might be a good spot for a stall warning vane like the RV-10 ;-D
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James Freeman
RV-8 flying
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02-04-2008, 08:51 PM
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Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Ione, California
Posts: 254
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Dent fix
Sense this is cosmetic and not structural; there is a hundred ways to fix it. One way would be to drill it out with a #30, use a shot bag behind it and tap it with a flat hammer lightly, don?t use a bucking bar or ?dolly? it would just flatten and spread the aluminum. File it lightly or sand it with 400 on a block to see the high and low places. You could use filler but a little JB weld would do just as well for such a small repair, but you would put a little inside to support the little bit of filler on the out side. I might even counter sink the hole a little and use a ?soft? rivet and just file it flat. Any way you do it should be OK as long as you drill the crack out.
Randy
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02-04-2008, 10:23 PM
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Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Houston, Tx
Posts: 163
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Filling the hole
Luis,
Personally I like the blind rivet after drilling out idea best. But instead of just riveting the skin alone, get some scrap the same thickness as the skin and make an internal doubler. Use a little pro-seal or 2 part epoxy to keep the doubler from moving around the rivet, and call it fixed.
Or, you just determined which bay you're going to put your leading edge landing light in.
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Bill S.
A+P, RV Dreamer + Schemer
RV-9 preplans in hand
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02-05-2008, 06:43 AM
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Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 66
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Landing light ...
As soon as I saw the crack, I thought "hmm..I guess I'm going with a leading edge light..." until I realized the ding is in the most inboard bay (next to the fuel tank) ....so no leading edge light there....back to the pop rivet idea...
BTW, thanks for the all the suggestions...
Luis
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02-05-2008, 07:05 AM
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Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: STL/3K6
Posts: 399
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Turn the outty dent into an inny and fill before paint. Treat the crack of course too but ending with a slightly concave surface and filling will give the best cosmetic end result I'd guess.
.02 cents from somebody who's broke (i.e. never been there never done it). 
__________________
RV-8, Both wings with top skins on
-4 bought flying
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02-05-2008, 04:48 PM
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Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Wichita Falls, TX
Posts: 2,182
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Alumiweld brazing rods
http://www.alumiweld.com/
I saw these demonstrated as Oshkosh and they were pretty slick!
Sticks to aluminum like solder sticks to copper. Heat with propane or Mapp gas torch. Some kind of zinc alloy that sticks really well to aluminum.
I'd stop-drill the holes in the cracks, dent the skin inwards a tiny bit then fill with these alumiweld sticks and sand back to a smooth finish, prime and paint.
I bought a package of these sticks at Harbor Freight for about $12.
__________________
Neal Howard
Airplaneless once again...
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02-05-2008, 05:43 PM
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Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Fargo ND
Posts: 135
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I feel your pain, dropped the bucking bar in the wing also but luckily the wing was laying on the table and it hit the bottom skin. Didn't know I even did it until I turned the wing over. No crack in mine and the dimple was small enough to just leave well enough alone.
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Greg Bossert
rv-7
Fargo ND
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02-05-2008, 06:02 PM
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Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Appleton Wi.
Posts: 87
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Shoot an A rivet in there. A's are like butter. If you drill out the damaged area ck for a 1097, shoot a 426 and sand it with a red scotch bright disc then blue when you get close to the skin and work it in 90 deg alternating patters to shine up the rivet you will never see it and it will literally hold for 100 years. I would worry about the filler holding across a hole without a doubler behind it.
Please dont take a flame to the wing, you'll ruin the heat treatment and invite corrosion down the road. The damaged area really should be removed and not bent inwards, bending it inwards will due funky things with stress in an area that's not meant to be a lightning hole. This repair should be cheap and easy. I'm not trying to throw snowballs, just trying to help.
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Mark Hegy
RV-8....slow build
Appleton WI.
Last edited by HEGASIS : 02-05-2008 at 06:27 PM.
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